My turnips have gone to seed - post 3

Back in the summer of 2011, I was trying to grow turnips in containers.  I disappeared for a week's holiday and when I returned the turnips went to seed and flowered.  It was probably due to the lack of watering in a week that had triggered this - growing in a pot they don't get as much moisture and I think they need cool, slightly damp soil.

Last summer, I grew turnips directly in the earth and I was blessed with some beautiful golf ball sized roots - they were so nice I ate them raw in thin slices in a salad.

In conclusion, I would suggest that turnips do not grow well in pots but love to grow in open ground so if you have a small urban container garden with some flower border edging - plant them in the flower borders!

Square foot gardening

A few months back when I was planning my veg plot I spotted an article about square food gardening in the Gardeners World magazine.  I was really inspired to try this and so divided my plot into 50cm2 squares.

Square 50cm2 gardening doesn't have the same ring to it but I'm a girl from the metric generation.

I grow something different in each of the squares depending on size.  I stick to crop groups for each square which lends itself to lots of space for crop rotations rather than big spaces being taken up for one crop type.  It can get difficult having most of the garden in favour of the tomato family (solanaceae) and the winter garden favouring brassicas and onion family but square foot gardening makes it all easier.

Generally I grow 4 varieties from a specific crop group - but it depends on the size of the mature plant.  For example rhubarb, squash and globe artichokes have their own 50cm2 square to themselves.  For roots I grow 4 types of roots in a square, the radish square is 3 different types of radish and some turnips, the onions have a slightly different take as I grow a few carrots in between the onions to help beat the pests. 

I think this method is more pleasing to the eye than rows, especially once the crops get established.  It has a higgledy piggledy view to the on looker (perhaps because of the close planting) but once you get up close you can see how everything is in its own individual zone.  It almost has a potager look about it.

Its easy to weed as well and as everything grows closely together you don't get so many - just a bit more weeding at the start while crops are establishing themselves. 

Interestingly in the mollusc invasion we had which accompanied the intensely wet weather - I didn't notice so much damage in the area where the square foot gardening method really took off.  It mainly took off with the plant groups heavily suited to our temperate climate. 

The mediterranean types didn't develop and so the weeds have dominated there - I've also had the most slug and snail damage in these areas.

Another method I tried in my new garden was the 3 sisters method.  I was growing squash at the base to suppress weeds and store moisture and these were grown at the foot of the beans.  I also grew sunflowers for the beans to climb but whilst the sunflowers were establishing (or desperately trying to survive in our disappointing weather) my boyfriend built climbing frames for them.  This was not the summer for trying such a thing.  The squash didn't grow big enough to over shadow the weeds and the sunflowers I was using in place of sweetcorn just got nobbled by the voracious slugs.

On a happier note, the squash are finally starting to grow now and I see the promise of baby fruit on some so all my efforts and feeding are (fingers and toes crossed!) not lost on my pumpkins and winter squash - they may still have a chance.

Have you tried any new planting methods this season?

Seeds to sow in the summer

Over the last fortnight, I've been asked to produce lists of what can be sown now. 

These questions have originated from the community gardens I support and Twitter.  Its a good question to ask just as we are on the brink of the glut season.  Times will be good for the next 6 weeks or so, but if we don't plan now there won't be much to eat from the garden come early autumn. 

I've also heard it mentioned that we Brits are very good at sowing seeds in spring but don't tend to keep the habit up through out the year!

So here are my suggestions:

Brassicas:
Pak Choi
Kohl Rabi
Komatsuna
Red Russian Kale
Turnips (for autumn crop)
Winter Radish

Salad:
All types of salad can still be sown, especially with the wet weather we've been experiencing
Corn Salad (for winter crop)
Sorrel
Mustard
Pea shoots (for summer salad crop) - in a week or two you will start to get shoots big enough to add to your salad

Solanaceae:
Spuds - quite like the idea of eating some home grown spuds with my Christmas dinner.  Home grown roasties...yumm!

Beets:
Chard
Beetroot

Roots:
Carrots (there are many more colours than the orange variety we find in the shops - I'm trying Pennard Plants rainbow carrots this year)

Real Seeds have also prepared a selection for summer sowing.  Here's their Summer Sowing Ideas

Happy sowing!

My turnips have gone to seed

On return from holiday, I found my turnips had gone to seed (also known as bolting).

This is when a vegetable plant transfers its energies from producing its vegetable to producing flowers and seeds.  It usually happens because the plant is under stress, for example, the conditions are too dry.

Another factor that can cause this to happen is growing vegetables in containers when really they would really like to be grown in much more soil and not restricted to the confines of a container.  With container growing another factor could be that they are not getting quite as much water as they would like.  This is a particular issue for the container grower as they will only get as much water as you or the rain gives them - if they were grown in open ground they could send their roots down further in search of water and nutrients.

My turnips are being grown in a pot (about 10 inches deep).  I don't think they like the confines of the pot as the turnips we are growing at the Bramford Community Garden are golf ball sized and not bolting at all.

They can't have been too stressed last week from lack of water as we had so much rain.  In any case I have beautiful yellow turnip flowers and no turnip roots.  So what do I do with them?  Can I still eat them?

When this occurred, it reminded me of when my radishes flowered last year.

At first I was disappointed as the roots I had grown them for were woody and dry.  Then they grew these beautiful white flowers, which I left as they looked beautiful.  Once they had finished flowering they produced seed pods.  I harvested these and added them to our salads.  We ate them like mange tout and they were wonderful and gave a good crunch to the salad.

Turnips look very much like big, white radishes.  Both turnips and radishes are brassicas, which is what reminded me of my last year's experiences with radishes.  Maybe these are good lessons learnt to bring to my bolted turnips.

Now I am in a quandry.  I feel I must experiment with the culinary delights that these flowers may present.   But do I eat them as flowers  (like broccoli) or do I let them form seeds?